Schoolgirl treated after being bitten by an adder hiding in long grass

A schoolgirl is recovering after being bitten on the leg by an ADDER as she strolled through long grass.

Jessica Astley, 15, was walking with friends through a school field when she felt a sharp scratch on her foot.

The Year 10 pupil looked down and noticed she was bleeding, and went straight to the medical room at Castle School, Thornbury, South Glos.

But when the wound was cleaned up, two puncture marks were visible and her foot quickly swelled up around them.

A quick-thinking teacher identified it was a snake bite, and called paramedics, who gave her anti-venom treatment.

The teenager’s mum Jane Coombes rushed her to A&E at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, where she was kept in for monitoring before being discharged.

Jessica Astley’s snake bite.

Jess said: “When I got bitten I wasn’t really thinking anything but when I went to the medical room it suddenly hit me that I had been bitten by a snake.

“I was really panicked, I didn’t know what was going on. It was a throbbing feeling but at the same time there was a lot of pain.

“It swelled up around the bite, which the doctors told me wouldn’t have happened unless the venom went in.”

Geography teacher Dr Andy Grant, who happened to be in the student centre when Jess was receiving treatment, said: “As I saw it I knew right away it was an adder bite.

“I’ve been here 23 years and nothing like this has ever happened before.

“Having said that, it does look like perfect adder territory down there, grassland on the edge of woodland, and given they travel fairly widely at this time of year, it is probably just a defensive bite.

“Jess was very brave through the whole thing and remained pretty calm.

“We are very glad to see she is ok.

“The paramedics who came said they had never had a single callout for a snake bite, but they were very reassuring and made the whole situation much less stressed than it could have been.”

Mum Jane said: “They were fantastic,hey took care of it brilliantly.

“Dr Grant had gone off to search for the snake, while the paramedics kept her perfectly calm despite telling me they were worried she could have gone into anaphylactic shock.”